I've been helping my parents — both in their 90s — with their finances. I've had to cancel subscriptions they didn't even know they had.

Ellen Jones had to cancel subscriptions her 93-year-old dad didn't know he was paying for.

Courtesy of Ellen Jones

• Ellen Jones, 60, from Kelso, Tennessee, has been helping her aging parents sort their finances.
• She spent hours on the phone canceling a credit card and subscriptions her dad hadn't used in years.
• If she could go back, she would have asked her parents to write down their financial information.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ellen Jones.